12 May, 2009:  Infant and Junior girls have donated £226.62 to Mrs Karen Capel who, with her husband Kevin, is a founder of the childhood cancer charity ‘Christopher’s Smile’.  The donation was raised from an Easter egg raffle to support the charity which took place at the end of the spring term. 

Christopher’s Smile was set up in October 2008 by Karen and Kevin Capel following the tragic death of their only son Christopher from medulloblastoma, an aggressive childhood brain tumour.   The charity works in partnership with the Institute of Cancer Research to help find effective treatments for children who suffer from childhood cancers.  The money raised by the Marist Preparatory School will help fund a ‘Higher Scientific Officer’ who will test new drugs that may be suitable for providing more effective cancer treatments for children.

At a special assembly held at the school, Mrs Capel explained that ‘25% of children diagnosed with cancer fail to survive as adult therapies such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy are not targeted and were originally developed to treat adult cancers which behave differently to childhood cancers. Christopher’s Smile hopes to raise enough money to assist the  paediatric drug development team at the ICR (Institute of Cancer Research) to develop the world’s first drug specifically for treating childhood cancers. This will mean improved survival rates and will limit the crippling side effects of current treatments.’